Iran: Warships Sail to Syria
A flotilla of Iranian warships crossed the Suez Canal and docked at the Syrian port of Tartus on Saturday. Iran’s Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said the mission displays Iran’s “might” despite 30 years of relentless sanctions.
The flotilla comprised the 18th Fleet of the Iranian navy. The warships would hold exercises and will “train Syrian naval forces under an agreement signed between Tehran and Damascus one year ago”.
The influential cleric and deputy chairman of the Majlis’ (parliament’s” National Security and Foreign Policy
Committee, Hossein Ebrahimi said:
“The presence of Iran and Russia’s flotillas along the Syrian coasts has a clear message against the United States’ possible adventurism. In case of any US strategic mistake in Syria, there is a possibility that Iran, Russia and a number of other countries will give a crushing response to the US.”
The activities of the Iranian warships at Tartus (which is also used by the Russian navy) will be keenly watched by the regional countries - Turkey, Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, in particular. Unconfirmed reports appeared recently that veterans of Iran’s Qods Force (a special unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps) might be dispatched to Syria to assist the regime.
Simply put, Iran’s message to Turkey and its Arab allies (which are arming and supporting the Syrian opposition) will be: “Brothers, if you keep doing this, so can we.” There is much food for thought here for these countries - especially the oil monarchies - as they gather in Tunis this coming Sunday for the first meeting of the “Friends of Syria”.
For Turkey, the Iranian warships have arrived in Syria at an awkward time. The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz reported that the Syrian army had captured 40 Turkish intelligence officers involved in subversive activities and over the past week Ankara has been “conducting intensive negotiations” with Damascus to secure their freedom. But the latter insists in return Turkey ending weapon transfers and infiltrations, and, furthermore, wants Iran to be the mediator. Ha’aretz noted:
Western officials fear that Iranian military presence along with Russian aid could turn Syria into a center of international friction much worse than the struggle inside Syria. They fear that the control over actions in Syria will be taken over by a Russian-Iranian “partnership” which would exclude the European Union and Turkey …
Testing times
However, Tehran is also testing the waters. Under international law, Iran enjoys the right of passage for its warships to pass through Red Sea and the Suez Canal. But Egypt’s equations with Iran remain ambivalent.
Egypt never allowed Iranian warships to cross the Suez until February last year following the overthrow of the Hosni Mubarak regime when, undeterred by the diplomatic pressure from the US and threatening noises from Israel, Cairo allowed an Iranian destroyer to pass through. Israel called it a “provocation”.
But since then, Egypt has been in turmoil and the initial enthusiasm for normalization of ties with Tehran has somewhat waned even as Egypt became dependent on financial help from Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Arab monarchies of the Persian Gulf.
Thus, the permission given to an entire Iranian fleet to cross the Suez last weekend signifies not only Egypt’s thinking toward Iran but also the growing complexities and unpredictability of its relations with the US.
The Egypt-US ties are passing through testing times. A potentially serious row has erupted with a crackdown on several dozen foreign non-governmental organization (NGO) workers by the Egyptian authorities, including 19 American nationals. An undisclosed number of US citizens have taken shelter in the US Embassy in Cairo.
Cairo announced on Saturday that 43 of these suspects who include foreigners (Americans, Serbs, Germans, Norwegians, Jordanians and Palestinians) and Egyptians will be put on trial coming Sunday charged with “establishing unlicensed chapters of international organizations and accepting foreign funding to finance these groups in a manner that breached the Egyptian state’s sovereignty”.
Washington has warned Cairo that the crackdown could harm bilateral ties and hinted that it might cut off military aid amounting to US$1.3 billion annually. Washington apprehends that a public trial could expose the scale of the US interference in Egypt’s internal affairs. Ten prominent American civil-society organizations operating in Egypt have been raided, including the National Democratic Institute, International Republican Institute and Freedom House, which receive US government funding.
The ruling Supreme Council for the Armed Forces in Cairo blames “foreign hands” for the continued unrest in Egypt. The colorful Minister of International Cooperation Fayza Abul-Naga (who is one of the few officials from the Mubarak regime to retain her cabinet seat) is spearheading the campaign against the foreign funding for NGOs.The Muslim Brotherhood has threatened to review Egypt’s 1979 peace treaty with Israel if the US cuts off aid.
Strategic defiance
Suffice to say, Tehran chose the appropriate moment to fathom the Egyptian mind. Cairo’s decision to allow the Iranian flotilla to cross the Suez underscores that it retains the strategic autonomy to reset relations with Iran. (Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has publicly expressed appreciation for Cairo’s decision.) Which contains more than a hint to Washington.